Freedom comes at the cost of bedtime stories, kisses goodnight, companionship, date nights, missed birthdays, anniversaries, and so many more things... The way I look at it though, I can sit here and dwell on all of the things that we are missing or look into the four little eyes looking up at me and tell them everything is alright. I tell my children we are the luckiest family in the world to have such a brave and strong Daddy. It's true we are truly blessed to have such an amazing hero in our life.
It was a hard morning a couple days ago as we delivered our hero to his plane. Time stood still for a moment as we stood there together as a family unit and said our goodbyes. We got into the car to drive away and Olive asked me if the plane could make a heart cloud for her as it departed. I am not sure that the request made it all the way to the cockpit, because there was not a giant heart in the sky as waved good bye that Sunday morning. There was, however a giant heart in the plane leaving us behind to perform a duty and a calling. As we stood surrounded with our sweet friends I realized just how fortunate we are.
My children and I are so amazingly blessed to have such wonderful friends who come to our side at any moment of need. I have an incredible husband who selflessly devotes his life to our country (12 years of service and still holding strong). He is an amazing father and brings sheer delight and awe to the lives of our children. We are so lucky to have an amazing family who supports us and gives us more love than we can even hold. I am above all blessed and humbled by the Lord who placed us here and now with all of this.
My husband and I have been through deployment before, but just us, not with our tiny soldiers in tow. This time around it is different. There are two innocent hearts with curious minds and a limited understanding of the situation at hand. They have a Daddy Countdown Jar filled with Tootsie Rolls that they keep track of the days, they listen to stories at night pre-recorded on our iPad from Daddy, and they will eagerly video chat when they are able. These small things are lifting their spirits, little do they know that they are lifting me up a thousand times over. We are so blessed to have these munchkins who bring a light to our lives. These two bravely take on the separation as they count down the days one by one until their Daddy comes home!
